Seeing Braman after thinking he had been dead for so long shook me to my core. There were so many things that didn’t make sense about it. First, He was older now and alive despite me ending his life so long ago. Second, Braman had been a werewolf and nothing more as far as I could tell when he was young, and while they did live longer than humans, they died after around 500 years. The only thing I could think of was that the blood I had given him imparted some of my immortality. I was lost in thought, picking at my cornbread and barely eating, when I noticed Angel was trying to get my attention.
“Are you alright, Miss Mara? Ever since you posted your article, you have been kind of in a daze. Was it something about what you had to write?” Angel asked. I shook myself and responded, “No, I just got a disturbing email, and I will have to see what I can find out tomorrow about who sent it and what it means. Do you know anyone good with computers?” Angel shook her head and said, “No, I'm afraid I don't.”
“No worries, I will just use a new contact and see if they can be as much help as they seem to think they can be. I will call them when I finish eating and see if I can set up a meeting tomorrow morning to go over the details and see what they can dig up for me.” I said. Shortly after, we finished eating with minimal conversation, and I went to my room to call up Tigger.
The phone rang only once before his gruff voice answered, “This is Damon.” I laughed. “Hey, Tigger. No hello? Just tell whoever is on the other end your name and wait for them to quiver in fear as they beg your attention?” Damon sighed and said, “Hello ma’am, I am pleased you called. How may I help you this evening?” I laughed again and said, “Did someone get in trouble for being grouchy with the scary ancient immortal? Did they tell you to play nice and treat me like royalty or some craziness? Just be yourself. I have been around way too long to care about formality.”
“Thank you. So what do you want, your ancientness?” he said in mock formality. “Hey, didn't your mother ever teach you not to bring up a woman's age? Anyway, I have something serious I need to discuss with you, and hopefully, you have someone with the skills necessary to accomplish what I need to be done. I got an email anonymously with a video attachment, and I need to see where it came from and, if possible, as much information as I can about the subject of the video.” I said.
“Does this mean you are willing to work with us in the future?” he asked. “Let's call this an interview and trial run,” I said. “Ok, well, we have a guy named Dex who does all the tech stuff for the council. He is a vampire, so dark rooms surrounded by computers underground are perfect for him. Do you want me to come to pick up your laptop?” He asked. I thought about it for a moment but decided I still didn’t want any of this council business at my doorstep. “No, I will meet you somewhere. How about Tazza D’Oro?” He said, “I know the place. I will see you there at 9 am.” I said bye and hung up the phone.
“I have to meet up with someone tomorrow at 9, but I should be right back if you want me to bring you anything. Coffee and hot chocolate?” I said to Angel and Christi, and they both looked over at me, smiling. “Ok, it's settled. I will get you guys coffee and hot chocolate and return before you know it.” So for the rest of the night, we sat around and watched tv before going to bed for the night.
The following day I was sitting at Tazza D’Oro drinking a cup of coffee at 8:30 and reading a newspaper, waiting for form Damon to show up. About 20 minutes after I sat down, I saw him walking toward my table with a cup of coffee in hand. “You’re early,” he said.
“I like to be early. It gives me time to relax and take in everything before focusing on something. Sit down and tell me more about what the council wants from me since I am entertaining the idea of helping them out.” I said.
He sat across from me and began, “They didn't really tell me what they want, and from what I can tell, I don't see what we get out of your help. I am a pretty junior member with so many ancient beings on the council, and they seem to know a lot they aren't telling me for whatever reason. The takeaway I got from it is that they want to have a way to ingratiate themselves to you either so they can keep tabs on you or to keep you from keeping tabs on them.”
“And why are you so willing to tell me all of this? It seems like you should be more worried about keeping me in the dark about their intentions, so I would be less likely to figure it out.“ I said with a smirk.
“That is pretty obvious. You are either exactly as dangerous as they fear, which means I want nothing to do with making you target me or the weres of the east coast, or you aren’t. Either way, I would prefer to deal with you in good faith as a representative of all the weres rather than be a puppet of the council who refuse to tell me what they know.” he supplied.
I had to admit he is more intelligent than I gave him credit for. “Well, I will tell you this much. Nobody on your council knows how powerful I am because I am so much older than any of them that they have no frame of reference for true power. And that brings us to my reason for meeting you here today. There is someone out there who is nearly as old as I am, and he shouldn’t exist.”
“So you think you are the only one with the right to live forever? That is a little arrogant, isn't it?” he asked.
“No, I mean he shouldn't exist because the last time I saw him was when I ripped his head off his shoulders about ten thousand years ago. His name is Braman, and he is a werewolf who got turned when a pack of werewolves attacked his village. I brought him back from death, but he went completely mad and tried killing everyone he ever knew, and I had no choice but to put him down for good.” I said with a lump in my throat.
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“I guess it didn't take. But wait... You said he is a were? He would still have died thousands of years ago even if he somehow managed to survive decapitation, which is rumored to be possible if the head is immediately reattached, but I have never seen it. And how exactly did you bring him back from death? That is impossible only necromancers can raise the dead, and they are just soulless shells of dead flesh animated to do the necromancers will.” He asked incredulously.
“I don’t know. It was not long after I awoke, and I didn’t understand a lot of what I did back then.” just then, my phone rang, and Angel's beautiful face popped up on the screen, eliciting a smile from me. “One moment, I need to get this.” I pulled out the phone and slid the green icon to answer. “Hello, my Ang..”
“MARA! They are taking her!” I heard a thud on the phone and Angel scream. There was a struggle, and I heard a gasp, “Mara.. hurry, please, my baby.” The line went dead.
I was on my feet, followed by Damon, who had heard the other end of the conversation with his were hearing. “I have to go kill a lot of people. We can finish this later.” I turned in the direction of my building and was about to bolt away when Damon said, “I will come with you.”
“You will never keep up, and I won't slow down.” without another word, I began shifting my power to my legs, increasing their muscle density and speed. I was moving faster than anything but the fastest jet could match as I blurred through the Pittsburgh streets to my building, ready to explode with fear, terror, rage, fury, and panic.
When I arrived at my apartment building, I didn't bother with the doors; I just scaled the wall to my apartment and went through the window glass like it was tissue paper. I looked around, and everything was completely normal, nothing out of place. I then realized they must have gone downstairs for some more stuff while I was out and got caught in their apartment. I went back out the window, used my talons to slide down the wall as fast as possible, and was through the third-floor hallway window within a few seconds.
Angel’s door was hanging open, and I could see blood on the floor. I bolted for her door and found her inside on the living room floor, clutching her chest, blood bubbling between her fingers as she gasped for air. I was immediately by her side, pushing my power into her trying to fix her chest and heal her back to total health. To my shock, she gasped and thrust my hand away.
“No, Miss Mara. You can’t heal me this time. It won’t work, and I don't have much time, so I need to tell you everything I can that I didn't tell you before. You have to get Christi back and protect her. She is your daughter now, and I know how much you love each other, so it will be ok.” Angel said.
“Angel, just let me heal you. I can use more power if that is what it takes. You have never seen how much power I can use if I have to.” I pleaded with her.
“It doesn’t matter how much power you have, Miss Mara. The only reason you were able to heal me back when we first met is that I used the last of my divine power to guide your power and convert it into healing my body could use. I am not human. I was born from a human and the archangel Michael. When I was pregnant with Christi, I figured out too late that Victor was a Cambion and knew the only way to counter that much demonic evil was to give her my power on top of the Angelic power she would already be gifted with. I think Victor suspected or knew I was a Nephilim, and that is why he got me pregnant, hoping to create the ultimate Cambion offspring. A demonic warrior with the power of the divine. For my entire pregnancy, I fed her my ability every time it recharged, and I would dump more and more into her. Finally, when it came time to birth her, I forced my divine grace into her, combining it with the infant-sized divinity she already had growing in her. Once she was born with what remained of my power, I could feel that her Angelic side had wholly overpowered the demonic side, and she should become the pure and wonderful girl we know and love. I think Victor will try to force her to become like him and all the others of his kind. You can’t let that happen, Miss Mara. My father and his brothers will never allow something that powerful to remain on the side of the demonic.” Angel sucked in a breath, and tears ran down her face.
“I will get her back, and we will make sure she stays safe. Let me call 911 and get you an ambulance. At least they should be able to help.” I said.
“Miss Mara, I don’t know how I made it this long. You don’t understand how fragile the human body is. I will be dead before anyone arrives. Please, Miss Mara, you have to find her and save her. She doesn't know what she is. If they force her to awaken her ability now, it could be horribly traumatic for her. She should start to manifest her powers from both sides around puberty when her body starts going through hormonal changes. Just do whatever you have to, and please get her back.” Angel wrapped her arms around me tightly and began sobbing. I held her for a few moments when she finally stopped crying and went limp in my arms.
“Angel?” I gently shook her. “Angel, come on, you need to get to a hospital.” I had tears streaming down my face, landing on her.
“She’s gone.” a voice from the doorway said. I looked over to see Damon standing at the threshold with a look of sadness on his face. “I heard her heart stop shortly after she stopped crying. I am sorry for your loss. Is there anything I can do to help?”
I was so lost and confused. Then, taking a deep breath, I began to calm myself and put my thoughts in order. “Forget the laptop for now. Can you track the men who did this? I need to find Christi and kill everyone involved in taking her and killing my Angel.” and she indeed was my angel now.
“I am no tracker, but the wolves are the best trackers in the world, and I can have them here within the hour. I will alert the council that you have a priority mission for my people and me, so they know we are working together on this.” He said.
“Do whatever you need to so that I can find them and show them why they shouldn’t target the people I love. I am going to the armory to get ready for battle.” I walked out the door carrying Angel and went to the elevator to descend to the basement floor and my cache of weapons and gear.